Spiders in the Dark
Spiders in the Dark is the third campaign set in Taria. It is set in the year 130 ACW and details the events of the Rosearrow Dynasty in Osfeld. Session One (Sunday, September 8th, 2019)(Laurarose, Ryan, Alex): Our adventurers for one reason or another were invited to the promotion ceremony of Lyssa Rosearrow, who was taking over for Vinzent who was retiring after serving as Lord Commander of the City Guard of Osfeld for the past forty years. The ceremony was interrupted by an assassination attempt on the king. Bandits revealed themselves and started killing many in attendance. After dealing with the threat, a search of the bandits bodies revealed nothing but sealed orders, written in some form of Elvish. Additionally, each bandit had a coin with a spider on it. Upon discussing the matter with Vinzent, the party found out that there were similar bandits in a nearby cave. They went to go investigate further, and when they arrived at the cave they found more bandits, along with a spider emblem on the ground, carved into a large pedestal. Upon going deeper into the cave, they found cultists performing a summoning of sorts. They killed the cultists, but it was too late: the call had been made. Two dark elves came out of the portal and attacked our party. They brought the heads of these dark elves back to the city and presented them to the king as proof that they existed. Session Two (Saturday, September 21st, 2019)(Laurarose, Ryan, Alex): At the beginning of the session, King Gregor decides that Cora needs additional protection so he assigns Mushashi, one of his top royal guards, to be her personal bodyguard. Alistair communicates that translation efforts on the scrolls have been mostly futile. However, the mages have a lead on someone who might be able to help. Lyssa Rosearrow, having recently becoming the Lady Commander of the City guard, brings to our party's attention that there has been a rash of serial murders being committed in Osfeld. The party decides to follow up on the murders first. They investigate the most recent crime scene and find nothing of importance other than three facts: the body appeared to have been killed on location, the body had been burned but that was not the cause of death, and that the victim had allegedly spent the evening at The Rusty Shitbucket, a local inn/tavern. Upon arriving at The Rusty Shitbucket, Hurg (the owner and also a member of the party) asks Kevin, the bartender, about ant suspicious activity. After some time Kevin recalled a mysterious figure that sat in the corner for most of the night and left shortly after the victim. The party killed some time in the tavern until it was time to travel to meet up with the informant that Alistair had mentioned. On their way to the market district, our party ran into this mysterious figure that Kevin described. He murdered a woman and her child in plain view of the party. They fought him briefly but he proved to be too powerful for the party. He remarked about how this was a misunderstanding, but that the woman and child had to die: they were abominations. At this he disappeared. The party missed their meeting with the informant and decided to head back to the palace. The following day, Alistair told the party that the informant wanted to reschedule for this night. The party made their way to the market district where they noticed they were being followed by Soryn, the mysterious figure from the night previous. They decided to ignore him during the day. Eventually, it was time to meet with the informant, a nervous wood elf. He handed over the translation key when he was attacked by some thugs. They quickly disposed of him and attacked the party. Soryn came to the rescue and together he and the party defeated the thugs. Upon killing them, the party discovered they were dopplegangers, shapeshifters. These were the abominations that Soryn was referring to. He wasn't burning the bodies, the dopplegangers had made it so that they burned their bodies upon their death, to obscure the fact that they weren't who they said they were. Soryn accompanied the party back to the palace where they reported the findings to Lyssa and King Gregor. The party also handed over the translation key to Alistair.